The Customer-right or wrong

What ever happened to "The Customer is Always Right"?
Business owners used to insist that their customers were
treated with the utmost courtesy, thereby ensuring Customer
Loyalty. Has courtesy or loyalty gone out of style?

Have you ever walked into a business and stood waiting
while clerks, technicians, or whoever ignored you? Like you
were an intruder?

I had to wait 20 minutes to pick up a printing order while
the only clerk as on the telephone with a non-emergency
personal call. Had I not needed the order and prepaid it, I
would have left, as the clerk did not even look at me to
acknowledge my presence. She merely turned her back and
kept on talking. That was my last visit there.

How much different and pleasurable for me to go into my
local drugstore and be greeted by the two enthusiastic
brothers from Lebanon who cheerfully greeted me with
"Hello Mrs. Robinson!" They had my business until I
moved to another state.

I also lived down the street from a bank for twelve years,
yet every time I went in (once a week-624 visits) they acted
like it was the first time they ever saw me, asking me for
my mothers maiden name, and getting really uppity when they
looked up my husbands mothers maiden name instead! When
another bank opened a couple of miles away, I took my
business there.

Here, where I live now, the local bank greeted me by name the
second time I went in after opening an account.

So, Business Owners, Keep your Present Customers. Woo back
your past customers. Thank them for their loyalty. Make sure
you get their name, address, telephone numbers, and ask their
permission to send them emails.

Make each visit by your customer or client a "Memorable
Occasion". One that they will never forget, and tell other
people about it, too.

If you have discount coupons, or any other incentive,
give one to your customer and another for one of
their friends.

Treat each customer with courtesy and as if they were the most
important customer you have. Keep your Customers!

But WHAT IF THE CUSTOMER IS IRATE, NASTY, IRRATIONAL and a
GENERAL NUISANCE?

1. Keep Quiet and LISTEN

2. Agree as much as you can. Use words like "I understand you
feeling like that" and "I have felt like that, too."

3. Don't argue. Letting the customer vent his/her feelings
usually diffuses the situation.

4. If you have to look into the situation, tell the customer
what you are going to do. Then DO IT. And get back to them if
you said you would. How many times has someone promised to
call and then has not called? Call them ASAP.

5. Remember, an irate customer can tell 25 or more people
why they are mad at your business. Make sure they are happy
customers.

Are you one of the customers who has had one of these experiences?
Copy this article and send it to your UNFAVORITE business.